


Heat Help

by MsCaptainWinchester (rons_pigwidgeon)



Series: Supernatural ABO Bingo 2017 [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha Dean, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Castiel in Denial, Castiel in Heat, EMT Dean Winchester, F/M, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mpreg, Mutual Pining, Neighbors, Omega Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 21:00:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11997876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rons_pigwidgeon/pseuds/MsCaptainWinchester
Summary: Castiel is deep in the throes of his heat when his alpha neighbor comes to check on him and ends up staying. Cas knows he shouldn't give in to temptation, knows Dean has been interested in him for a long time and this will only make it worse. But he smells so good, and he's so gentle. Cas can't resist. But that doesn't stop him from regretting it later and shutting Dean out before things can get serious. Will they ever figure themselves out, or is Castiel doomed to spend his life forever alone?





	Heat Help

**Author's Note:**

> This story fills my Heat and/or Rut square in the 2017 Supernatural ABO Bingo challenge.

There is a noise, faint in the haze of heat swirling through his head, but growing louder. Slowly, as though swimming up from a pit of thick, hot lava, he comes to understand that someone is at his front door. He climbs off the nest of blankets he has made of his bed, leaving the fake knot behind, and makes the labored journey to the front door, only just remembering to grab a robe as he passes the bathroom. It feels heavy against his sweaty skin, vaguely stifling. The scent doesn’t hit him until he gets the door open, but it’s like stepping into a wall of the most enticing dessert Castiel has ever tasted. Oh. It’s the alpha next door, the look of concern on his face quickly morphing into lust as he gets a whiff of Cas’ heat hormones and dripping slick.

“Dean?” Castiel manages, weaker than he would like.

“Hey Cas, I was just checking on you. You uh… you left your uh… your garage open. And the keys are still in your car. I can see why now. You okay?” His voice cracks on the last word, higher in pitch as a bead of sweat breaks out on his forehead.

Peripherally, Castiel knows he shouldn’t, knows doing this would be leading Dean on, but the scent is too much. He slides closer, looking at Dean with all the want his heat-addled brain can manage. “No. Can you help me?” he asks, resting his hands on Dean’s soft stomach, skin hot through the thin t-shirt he’s wearing. Castiel’s fingers itch to take it off him.

“Of course, Cas. What uh… what do you need?”

“You.” He drops one hand to grab at the thick length inside Dean’s jeans, mouth starting to water at the size of it.

Dean looks like he might try to hold him off, maybe push him away in a respectful manner, but Castiel can’t have that. He wants a knot, wants Dean’s knot, preferably now. He fumbles at the button of Dean’s jeans, pulling until it releases, slides his hand inside. “Please, Alpha?” he whispers, looking up through his lashes in the closest he can get at seductive. Dean curses, surges forward to take Cas’ mouth. He’s quickly lifted into strong arms and carried into the house, the sharp sound of the door slamming behind them the only distraction from devouring Dean’s lips. Dean’s scent, the feel of his skin, act as a balm to Castiel’s heat, helping him think a little straighter. He has just enough sense to know that this is a terrible idea. Dean’s his next door neighbor. How is he supposed to look across his lawn next week and meet Dean in the eyes, knowing what kind of a whore he’s about to be all over Dean’s knot? It isn’t enough to stop, though. Dean smells too damn good for that. They make it as far as the stairs before Castiel’s pheromones get the best of Dean, and they end up in a heap on the top steps, Castiel clawing Dean’s shirt off while Dean pushes the robe open and starts licking the sweat from his skin.

“You on anything?” Dean manages to ask.

“Pill. Clean. Want you, Alpha.” Dean growls, teeth catching at one sensitive nipple, pulling a whine from Cas. The rest of their clothing is done away with, pushed down and out of the way in favor of a swift mounting. Dean is huge inside him, stretching him wide, filling him just the way his fake knot had been failing to do. It’s the fake knot that made him loose enough to take him, though. A good thing because Dean is not patient. He slams in hard and takes no prisoners, just the way Cas likes it.  
  
-

They made it to the bed by round three, and now laying on their sides, Dean’s knot still thick inside him, Dean pets his sweaty hair and trails kisses down his neck. It’s soothing, and Castiel curls closer to get more of them. “You doing okay?” Dean asks against his ear.

“Better, thank you. I’m sorry for ambushing you like that.” Cas hides his face under his arm, guilt and shame overwhelming him in the temporary clarity between heat waves.

Dean chuckles and rubs a hand down his arm. “Don’t be. I’m glad it was me who knocked on your door.” He pulls Cas close, burying his nose in Cas’ neck. “You should probably try to get some sleep before it comes again.”

Castiel agrees, but it is harder said than done. He watches the light filter through the tree outside his window and tries to settle his mind. The thumb brushing across his chest is rhythmic enough to act as a metronome, lulling him into sleep.

When he wakes later, it’s to cold sheets and an empty bed. Dean comes in just as he’s getting to the bathroom, a tray in his hands piled high with food and bottled water. Castiel had been planning to do what he could to clean up, but the fever is already creeping up the back of his neck and Dean looks too good in Cas’ pajamas pants and nothing else. He walks over on legs still shaky from over-use. Dean must catch his intention because he sets the tray down and lets Cas pull him close, tonguing at his throat. Dean’s arms snake around his waist as he cranes his neck, giving Cas more access. Cas is already pushing the pajamas pants down, grabbing for the thick cock he wants inside again, impatient to fill his need. Dean begins to nudge him backwards, kissing him when he whines in protest. They were by the bed, but now they’re in the bathroom, and Dean’s pulling away to turn on the shower.

“What are you doing?” Cas asks. “Don’t you want to fuck me?”

Dean chuckles as he ushers Cas in. “I do, and I will, but we’re gonna get you cleaned up first.” His shower is a double stall, something he’d thought extravagant and unnecessary when he bought the house. He is grateful for it now, sharing the space with Dean, the cool water helping to calm him a little. It doesn’t quell the lust, though. Dean turns him to face away from the spray, bends him over just enough, knocks his legs apart with a gentle nudge of his foot. He’s inside a moment later, filling Castiel deeper than any toy ever could. Cas’ moans echo off the tiled walls, louder than the sound of the water as he rocks back onto Dean’s cock. Dean laughs into his ear and kisses the ridge of it. He has Cas by the shoulder, pulling him back against his cock, rocking into his hips like the unending tide of the ocean Cas is adrift on. When Dean pulls his back up against Dean’s chest, he leans his messy damp hair against Dean’s shoulder and keens at the way the new angle makes his nerve endings explode.

He has no idea how long they stay there, coming together and falling apart. When Dean is locked inside him, filling him with warm, heat-calming come, the water is still hot spraying down on them. Dean directs him around to face the spray and cleans him off, massaging shampoo into his hair and scrubbing the sweat and come off his skin with a loofah. They dry off together, partially because they have no choice and partially because they can’t stop touching each other. Even freshly washed, the heat scent is all over them, and when they collapse back in bed, they immediately begin another round.

-

When Castiel wakes up on Tuesday morning, the fever is completely gone, and he feels like himself again. Exhausted, but himself. Which makes the fact that his next door neighbor is wrapped around him like a burrito a little more than awkward. His first attempt to extract himself from Dean’s arms only results in Dean pulling him closer with a sleepy grunt. Castiel lays there, thinking his way through an extraction plan for a good minute, before managing to wiggle himself out from under Dean’s arm quickly enough to avoid the inevitable squeeze. While he was still affected by his heat, Dean’s clingy sleep patterns had been a welcome bit of comfort, but now it makes him feel guilty and uncomfortable. He gathers a set of fresh clothes and quickly escapes to the bathroom to scrub himself raw of the sweat, come, and alpha scent that covers his body.

When he re-emerges half an hour later, pink and tingly from the loofah, Dean is just rolling over, blinking sleepy eyes open. “Hey you, how you feelin’?”

“Much better, thank you. I should really be getting to work. I didn’t call in yesterday. They’ll be wondering why I’ve been gone.” Castiel begins picking up the discarded clothing strewn around the room, actively avoiding looking at the bed and the naked alpha sprawled across it.

“I called them while you were asleep. Didn’t want you to get in trouble.” There’s a rustling of sheets and the sense of another presence standing. Castiel glances over to see Dean stretching his back out with his hands above his head, bare back and ass flexing with the movement. He quickly looks away.

“Thank you. That was… very considerate of you. I should still be going, though, and I’m sure you have work to get to as well.” He is trying to be subtle, trying not to blatantly shove his neighbor out the front door, but now that the heat is over, he just wants his space back again. There’s a reason he’s never had an alpha to share his heats with before, after all.

“Yeah, I should probably get going.” Dean goes to a chair in the corner piled with clothing and begins to dress. Castiel has no idea how his clothing even got in the room. The last he remembers, he’d shoved them off Dean on the stairs three days ago. He tries to avert his gaze, but Castiel has always had a difficult time avoiding looking at Dean. The alpha’s attractiveness is one of the reasons Castiel spends so much effort avoiding him in the first place.

Once Dean’s clothes are secured, he approaches Castiel with an affectionate smile and attempts to pull Cas closer. “I had a great time this weekend. We should do it again. Maybe sooner than your next heat?”

Castiel squirms away, forcing a smile of his own. “Thank you for your assistance this weekend, but I don’t think repeating our activities would be a good idea. I enjoyed myself, but I am not looking for a mate right now.”

Dean’s expression crumbles, the happiness sliding off his face like loose beads off the edge of a table. “Oh. Okay, that’s cool. If you change your mind, let me know.”

“I will, thank you.” He holds himself very still as he waits for Dean to leave, listening to the sounds of his feet clumping down the stairs, the pause as he gathers his shoes, the screech of the screen door as he leaves. It is only as it closes behind Dean that Castiel can breathe again. He takes one breath, and then another, shakes himself of the discomfort he felt under Dean’s disappointment. It’s over now. He can pretend none of this ever happened and move on. He puts on a false smile and gets busy preparing for work. If the omega part of him thinks he should go after Dean, tell him he made a mistake, it is quickly squelched by good sense and the need to get back to his routine.

-

Getting back into a routine is harder said than done when part of the routine includes seeing Dean.

  
At the grocery store, fresh-faced and as beautiful as ever in his uniform, still smelling a little like Cas from the shared heat. "Hey, my brother sent me this hippy dippy recipe for cauliflower pizza that I think you'd like. I was gonna make it this week if you maybe wanted to come over for dinner?"

Cas tries to avoid eye contact, but it's impossible. "I don't think I'll have time this week, but thank you for the invitation."

"We could do it next week, if that works better."

"I don't think so. Excuse me." Cas maneuvers his little cart around Dean's, deciding to cut his short and finish his shopping at another time. Or perhaps another grocery story. He makes the mistake of glancing back at Dean as he gets into a line and finds him still standing next to the cauliflower, frowning. He looks away.

  
At the gym, sweaty and stinking of testosterone and alpha pheromones, hopping onto the treadmill next to Cas' and beginning to jog. "The weather's getting nice again. Maybe we could go for a morning job together around the park next week?"

Cas stares straight ahead. Even looking at Dean in such a state is too much temptation for him, combined with the smell. "I have to go in early next week. I won't have time to run."

Dean is quiet for a long, uncomfortable minute. “Maybe later, then.”

“Maybe,” Cas says as he unplug his tether to the treadmill and gathers his things to move to another area of the gym. He fakes a smile at Dean in farewell and forces down the guilt at the disappointment he gets in return. He isn't being fair to Dean, he knows, but there just isn't room in his life for a mate. He decides maybe it's time to switch gym memberships.

  
At the mail boxes, because theirs are three inches apart. Cas should have known when Dean got out of his car that he would be going for the mail. Dean in his uniform just isn't playing fair, the way the starched dark blue material stretches across his chest, the air of authority Dean has when he wears it, confident on his bowed legs. Castiel has to steel himself before he melts into a puddle of submissive omega goo at the sight.

"Hey there, neighbor. I was gonna have a few beers and veg out tonight. Wanna come over?"

It isn't the first time he's asked, but Castiel's answer is still the same. "No, thank you. I don't drink."

"You don't have to. I could make us dinner?"

"No, thank you. I have work to do."

"It's Friday night."

Cas grabs his mail out of his box with more force than necessary and doesn't make eye contact. "Have a good weekend," he says before walking up to his house and shutting himself inside. He sees Dean's posture slump from his vantage hidden behind his door. Dean looks up at Cas' front door for a moment with a sad little frown before grabbing his own mail and sulking inside his own house.

Cas spends the evening curled up on his couch with Nobokov, feeling guilty for the way he's treated Dean, but then angry that he has to feel guilty when he never asked Dean to be interested in him in the first place. Should he have allowed Dean to help him with his heat knowing that Dean had feelings for him? Probably not. But he had been mid-heat and heavily hormonal when Dean showed up at his door. He couldn't entirely be held responsible for his actions.

It still leaves him slightly nauseated.

-

The awkward interactions continue until they don't. One day Cas is in the grocery store and looks up to see Dean standing on the other side of the produce bin smelling apples. He looks up briefly, but then quickly away, and walks off without taking any apples. Castiel watches him go with furrowed brow. Dean has never been anything but chatty when they encounter each other. Maybe he wasn't feeling well, Cas tells himself, shrugging the incident off as a fluke and going about his day.

Except it isn't a fluke. Dean goes out of his way to avoid Castiel everywhere they go. Castiel is as hyperaware of Dean as he has always been, but for a very different reason this time. And their neighbors notice the change, too.

“Did that boy finally get enough of you ignorin' him?” Missouri Mosely asks him in the checkout aisle, moments after Dean swerved into a different lane upon spotting Castiel already in line.

Castiel blinks at her. "I'm sorry?"

"Dean normally sniffs around you like you're stuffed full of apple pie filling. I was just noticing that change."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Castiel says, not making eye contact. He doesn't like being rude to Missouri, but he also doesn't want to talk about Dean with her. Or with anyone.

The town disagrees.

"Did ya'll have a fight?” Benny LaFitte asks when Dean makes a beeline to the exact opposite side of the diner one morning for breakfast. Castiel swallows the lump in his throat and orders his usual eggs and hash browns even though he doesn’t feel hungry anymore.

  
“Lover's spat? You should go and talk to him. He looks miserable without you.” Garth tells him when Dean walks away from the counter at Starbucks without making eye contact with Cas.

  
Donna Hascum watches Dean walk away from the weights area at their gym as soon as Castiel sits on a decline bench nearby with a sad, wistful little smile. "I see Dean finally gave up on you. That's too bad. I always hoped you would figure yourselves out. You look so good together, and he's clearly in love with you,” she says, turning to him with her big doe eyes.

“Excuse me?” Castiel asks, pausing in adjusting his feet in the holders to do his sit-ups.

Donna gives him a look. “Don't tell me you never saw it. I wish my husband looked at me the way that alpha looks at you. Probably wouldn't be getting a divorce.”

The comment gives him pause. He has never really paid attention to the way Dean looks at him, maybe because he was always so busy trying to get away from the alpha and the mouth-watering way he smells. Now that Dean is no longer trying to get near him, he's starting to miss him.

Dean has always had a presence about him, not quite comforting. Or at least Castiel could never call it comforting because he was always too nervous about what Dean did to his body chemistry to let himself be comforted. Warm and present and solid in a way that most alphas are not.

He looks in the direction Dean hurried off to and bites his lip. Donna's still looking at him, her doe-eyed expression turning knowing. "Told ya," is all she says before getting back to her reps.

Castiel spends the rest of his work-out—the rest of his day, really—thinking about Dean and re-assessing the situation. Perhaps he had been too hasty in dismissing Dean's advances. Did he really want to spend his life alone for the sake of his career? What would he have to show for his life? Money? Stubborn pride? Dean had never shown any inclination that he might be like other alphas who expect their omegas to stay home after mating. Castiel never even gave him the chance to weigh in on the issue. Perhaps he should have.

-

He thinks things over more, spending a week, and then two, analyzing how he treated Dean. How Dean treated him. How well they had fit together during his heat. How considerate and gentle Dean had been with him. How nice it had been to feel cared-for and wanted.

He thinks the issue over, and then he comes to a decision. One Thursday afternoon when he gets him from work, instead of walking into his house like usual, he turns in his driveway and crosses the lawn to Dean's house, and knocks on the door.

It takes a minutes before the door opens, but it isn't Dean there when it does. A beautiful omega is standing in front of him, shiny black hair flowing over one shoulder, her t-shirt loose and low-cut enough to reveal her flawless, tanned skin. Castiel knows who she is instantly, though the two of them have never spoken before. He has no idea why she might be at Dean's house.

"Hello. Is Dean home?" he asks, trying to hide his confusion.

Lisa smiles at him. "No, but he should be home in a few minutes. I was just making dinner for him."

"Oh, I... I just wanted to talk to him for a minute. I'll try to catch him another time. Thank you."

"No problem. I'll let him know you were looking for him."

"Oh no, that's not... Have a good evening." He nods his farewell and re-crosses the lawn back to his house, head still swimming with questions and a sense of looming dread. He hears the Impala pull up just as he's opening his front door, but he doesn't attempt to approach Dean.

A few minutes later, there's a knock on his door, and he finds Dean standing there, still in his uniform and looking and smelling more enticing than any person has the right to be. "Hey, you wanted to talk to me?"

Castiel hesitates, unsure he wants to say the things he had intended now that he's found another omega at Dean's house. "Yes. I wanted to apologize for the way I've been treating you lately, especially after... your assistance a few weeks ago."

Dean raises an eyebrow at him. "My 'assistance'?"

Castiel looks down at his bare feet, feeling his cheeks warm. "Yes. I was rude in dismissing you right afterwards, and the way I've been avoiding you and refusing your invitations afterwards. I was... nervous." He glances up at Dean through his lashes, but can't maintain the eye contact. "I’ve never shared a heat with anyone before. I wasn't… comfortable with the way being around you makes me feel.” The look of alarm on Dean’s face has him back-pedalling quickly. “I enjoyed out time together. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. I’ve just… I’ve spent most of my life resisting the urge to be… intimate with someone, especially an alpha. And being with you put thoughts of nesting and mating and pups and all sorts of other things in my head, and I wasn’t comfortable with that.”

He takes a deep, steadying breath. Apologies are never easy, and this one is harder still than most. “Instead of dealing with that, I took my discomfort out on you. It's wasn't fair or kind. I wanted to apologize, and see if we could maybe... start over."

The silence is deafening. When he looks up again, Dean is staring at him as if he had just announced his full and whole-hearted support for President Trump. "You want to start over." Dean repeats without inflection.

"Yes. I realize it is a lot to ask considering the way I have treated you, but I intend to make up for my mistakes, if you are open to letting me."

Dean looks back towards his house, the light on in his kitchen, Lisa visible through the window. "You have the worst timing, you know that? I've spent the last two and a half years trying to ask you out. The minute I finally come to terms with the idea that you aren't interested and aren't going to be interested no matter how good our chemistry is and move on, you have a change of heart."

Move on. Castiel has expected as much, but hearing the words out of Dean's mouth is like a physical blow. "I'm sorry. I was... scared. I don't think I am anymore."

Dean runs his fingers through his hair in a rough move that pulls the skin of his forehead back a little. "Yeah, well, that's great and all, but I just started something with Lisa, and I like her. A lot. I don't think I want to risk what she and I are building just because you finally figured yourself out. You had plenty of time to do that, Cas. You didn't. I'm not going to drop everything now that you have, I'm sorry." He shrugs, looking at Castiel with a tight, straight mouth and frustration in his eyes.

Castiel looks down at his toes again, clenching them against the soft yarn of the rug. "I understand. I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble."

"You didn't... Cas, come on."

"No, it's fine. I'll leave you alone. Please, go back to your house. Whatever Lisa is cooking for you smelled delicious." He wants to step back and close the door, but he's closed the door in Dean's face too many times at this point. It wouldn't help his cause. Not that he's confident that anything would help his cause, but still. He doesn't look up to see whatever expression is tightening Dean's face now, only waits until Dean takes a step back, and then two.

"I guess I'll see you around, then."

"Of course. Goodbye, Dean."

He waits until Dean's work boots have retreated from his front stoop. He hears the crunch of the grass as Dean makes the journey he had taken himself not ten minutes before. Waits until the sound of the front door is too loud in his ears before shutting his own and collapsing against it.

He made a colossal mistake, and now he is doomed to watch the man who could have been his alpha make a life with someone else.

"Fuck."

-

Miserable is what he could be. Mopey and sad and unfit to speak to other humans. He let the love of his life slip out of his hands for the most idiotic reason known to man. He could wallow in his own guilt and self-pity. He could let Dean see how miserable he is in the hopes that Dean will change his mind. But that wouldn't be kind, and it wouldn't be what Dean deserves.

Instead, he decides to be happy for Dean. He goes out of his way to say hello when he sees Dean out, especially when he and Lisa are out together. He's accommodating and friendly. He learns to bake pie and drops it off for Dean's birthday. And when the comments begin again, he doesn't let the shriveled, bitter little voice in the back of his head win.

“Too bad you two didn't work out, but he seems happy now,” Garth tells him in the check-out line, both of them watching Dean help Lisa pick out avocados.

Castiel finds himself nodding, but he doesn't say anything.

  
“That Lisa sure is gorgeous, and sweet as pie on top," Donna tells him, both of them on treadmills facing the glass-walled yoga studio where Lisa is busy teaching a class.

"Have you ever tried yoga?" Cas asks, increasing his incline.

Donna laughs herself right off the treadmill. "Yoga, me, oh my no. I'd fall flat on my face," she says as she climbs back on, still shaking her head.

"We could take a class together," he suggests. It's a little much, he knows, but he likes Donna and it never hurt anyone to work on flexibility.

Donna just shakes her head at him, still laughing. "Not on your life."

  
“I heard Dean was at the jewelers the other day, looking at rings. Only a matter of time now," Missouri tells him as they wait in line at Starbucks.

Castiel clenches his fingers on his laptop handle and breathes through his nose. "I hadn't heard that. You think they're intending to mate?"

"All I heard was that he's looking at rings. But they sure do look happy together. And that little boy of hers loves Dean."

Castiel nods, but finds himself unable to reply. He buys coffee when it’s his turn, because it would look strange to wait in line and not, but he doesn’t drink it when it comes, and he doesn’t set his laptop up to work like he’d planned, either.

-

The rain is loud against his windows, the thunder and lightning hitting with enough force to shake the house. Castiel is reading by candlelight, his electricity having gone out shortly after the storm hit. He's half-way through The Woman in White when a knock on the door breaks through the sounds of the storm. He uncurls from the couch, confused as to why anyone would bother coming for a visit in such terrible weather. He hurries to the door, not wanting whoever it is to have to stand in the pouring rain any longer than necessary, but when he peers through the window in the front door, he's surprised to see who's there.

"Dean?" He asks as he opens the front door to a sheet of rain and a shivering alpha.

"Hey, is your electricity out, too? I saw the candles." He indicates the row of candles flickering in the front window.

Castiel blinks at him. Dean hasn’t made an effort to check on him in months. "Yes, it's been out for a few hours now. You didn't need to come over and get yourself soaked like this, though. I have enough candles to last me a week at least."

"I wanted to make sure you were okay. Do you want to come over? I have a generator in my basement."

"Oh, er... I wouldn't want to disturb you and Lisa. I'm fine, thank you." He retreats further inside the doorway, trying to step out of the rain and confusion circling Dean's presence on his porch.

Dean toes at the welcome mat with a steel-toed boot. "Lisa and I broke up a few weeks ago. It's just me over there."

Castiel can't help his eyes widening at this news. "I didn't... I thought you were planning to mate."

"We were talking about it, but I uh... Lisa thought I was still stuck on you."

"Oh," Castiel takes another step back, blinking rapidly. His front is soaked by now to match Dean's wet-rat look. "Do you want to come in?" He opens the door wider, waiting until Dean steps over the threshold to shut the door—and the rain out. "Let me go get you a towel. You're soaked."

"I'm fine. Look, Cas, I..." Dean takes hold of his elbow, reeling him in and preventing him from leaving the room. The firelight makes his wet skin shine even as droplets fall down his face. Cas can’t look away from him. “Lisa wasn’t wrong, okay? I am still stuck on you. And if you don’t feel the same way, that’s fine, I can deal. But I gotta know.”

Cas stares at him hard, unable to wrap his brain around what he’s hearing. It isn’t too late? Even though he fucked up royally, this is still a thing he could have? “Yes,” he says breathlessly, fingers digging into Dean’s arm to keep him close. He needn’t have worried. Dean’s eyes light up at his words and he steps even closer.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been in love with you for a long time. I was just too scared to let myself be.”

Dean grins and pulls him close, dipping down until their lips are close enough to brush. “I’m in love with you, too. God, you have no idea.” Cas doesn’t need to know. He reaches up to kiss Dean, throwing himself whole-heartedly into it, no longer caring how having this might affect how he’s perceived by the outside world. All that matters, the only opinion that matters, is Dean’s. Dean wraps his arms around Cas and pulls him close, their clothes sticking together and the rain water dripping from Dean’s skin onto Cas’, mixing their scents. It’s overwhelming, but also the best kiss of Castiel’s life.

 

**Epilogue**

“Oh gosh, look at you! Congratulations! I can’t wait to spoil the heck out of this little one,” Donna exclaims as she pulls Castiel into a hug in the middle of the Roadhouse parking lot. Cas pats her back, not quite sure where to put his hands. He never thought he would be in a position to hug the Sheriff’s Deputy before, and hugging anyone with his new belly has become awkward to say the least.

“Thank you, Donna.” He looks to Dean, who is stifling his laughter by biting his hand.

“I’m so glad you two figured yourselves out. I just know you’re going to be great papas,” she says, letting Cas go so that she can hug Dean, who is no longer laughing.

  
“I always knew you two would figure it out. Congratulations on the pup! I can't wait to see how cute the little one is,” Garth says as he puts an arm around both of them in the middle of the produce section.

  
“Finally! I was starting to worry you two would never work it out. And you've pupped already, congratulations,” Missouri tells them, just before taking a seat at the table next to theirs. Cas finds himself blushing without knowing why.

Dean grins and takes his hand on top of their table. “Thanks, Missouri,” he says, and kisses Cas’ hand. Cas can’t help but melt.

“I’m so in love with you,” Dean says later on that night, cradling Cas’ face in his hands as they stand in the entryway to their home—formerly Dean’s home. Cas smiles and lets Dean kiss him, warmth and happiness all around him and their pup growing in his belly. Dean’s fingers brush his mating mark, sending shivers down his back.

“You have no idea.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you want writing updates from me, you can follow me on Twitter [@RonsPigwidgeon](https://twitter.com/RonsPigwidgeon) or Tumblr at [MsCaptainWinchester](https://mscaptainwinchester.tumblr.com/).


End file.
